Sunday, 13 December 2015

Well it’s December and I’ve hung up the carp rods for a while so I thought I’d end the year with a review of how my fishing went in 2015, I did this last year and it was good to look back at the up's and down's you get in carp fishing.

I didn’t make too bad a start to 2015, I was into some winter carp quite early on in the year and my best winter result was 3 fish in one afternoon caught in early February. This result followed up some success in previous weeks as I’d been catching during January too but only one carp per session. Unfortunately these carp were all caught from a ‘no publicity’ club lake which is why there is no winter blog entry for 2015.

By the end of February I was impatient and I really wanted to get back onto some harder waters and bank myself a decent fish. I moved from my winter runs water the first week in March and this proved to be a disaster for me. The runs dried up and I found myself banging my head against a brick wall for the whole of March and April, a mistake I certainly don’t intend to repeat next spring!.

May saw the PAAS annual forum social, this year it was at Cromwell Carp Lake again and it brought my first blog entry of 2015. It was great to catch up with the lads again and although it turned out to be another hard trip, I managed to winkle out the second biggest fish of the social, a 22lb 12oz mirror, this was despite coming out of the draw last again!. You can see the brief highlights of the Cromwell social and the footage of my first twenty of the year being weighed and photographed below.

Cromwell Carp Lake Social 2015

I quickly followed up my Cromwell twenty with a stunning upper double fully scaled mirror, this was my first fish from a ‘no publicity’ Cheshire carp syndicate I’d joined so again the story of this carp never made it into print, suffice to say, being my first fish from a new water and such a looker, I was extremely happy with it!.

After two good results in May I took my first break from carp fishing when the river season opened on June 16th, I spent the rest of June and most of July fishing the River Severn in Shropshire. Although this blog is called the North West Carp Blog, originally it was called Angler's Diary. I swapped the name of the blog after a couple of years because I thought it better reflected the writing I do. My Angler’s Diary blog is still there and I decided to resurrect it for any non-carp related fishing I do and you’ll find an entry about my River Severn Barbel exploits on there, along with the odd video clip like the return shot below.

Returning a river severn barbel

August saw me back at the catfish lake in Cheshire. There were two reasons for this, firstly I felt like catching another Cheshire Catfish and secondly, the carp sessions I had been doing were all blanks!. In fact that one syndicate success back in May turned out to be my only fish from that lake in 2015 as I blanked session after session. I did indeed bank a catfish though, in fact I caught a few using the rather bizarre technique of feeding the birds!, I kid you not!, check out the video below. I’m gutted I knocked the camera when I got up to strike the run, had it not been for that the video would have been awesome as the catfish put up what could best be described as an epic scrap. The bird feeding, run and photographing are all there though and it’s well worth a watch, the catfish in the film weighed 22lb 12oz, same size as my Cromwell carp believe it or not!.

A Cheshire Catfish caught by feeding the birds!

In late September and early October I got back amongst the carp again with a run of fish to upper doubles, these were all caught on a big reservoir whilst fishing at range. I actually recorded some of my casting, all of my fish came at ranges over 150 yards and you can see the video of my casting technique below.

Long distance casting technique

As well as getting back amongst the carp I managed another decent Catfish late in the season, this one turned out to be my biggest fish of the year at 23lb exactly. I was happy with my two biggest catfish, they definitely filled a gap left by the lack of 20lb carp this year. I finished up with just the one twenty from Cromwell and looking back that seems a little disappointing. I certainly hope 2016 brings me a bit more luck when it comes to catching bigger carp.

My biggest fish of 2015, a 23lb Cheshire Catfish

At the beginning of November I hung up my carp rods for a while, I might possibly have made a mistake doing that as November has been incredibly mild but I fancied another change so I put the carp gear away and decided to do some lure fishing for perch and pike instead. I’ve written a couple of pieces for my Angler's Diary blog where you can read what I’m up to at the moment. As usual these days, there are videos accompanying my writing and you can see the odd pike or perch being hooked and caught.

Ultra light lure fishing for perch and pike

I’m still just lure fishing at the moment, it’s actually a really convenient way of fishing as I can just roll up at the canal and do an hour or two when I feel like and that’s ideal at this time of year. Once Christmas is out of the way I’ll be dusting off the carp rods again and going in search of some winter carp action so until next year, have a great Christmas and New Year and tight lines for 2016.

Sunday, 4 October 2015

Well we are finally into autumn, I’ve been fishing a rather large reservoir of 34 acres for the last few weeks, this has required me to change gear and fish at range with some Terry Edmonds style long distance casting .

Long Range Casting Technique I've been using recently (click to watch)

I’ve had 3 fish from the water in 3 trips but last weekend I was there when we had high air pressure and the water fished very badly. I was keen to get back again but when I looked at the weather for the weekend it was high pressure again. I was gutted, being a short session angler I have to pick my venues carefully and this reservoir was a 170 mile round trip taking an hour and a half there and the same back. I wasn’t keen on travelling all that way when I knew the conditions were poor so I stayed nearer to home and dropped onto my favourite little runs water so I’d be in with a chance of a bite. It was the obvious choice, when you fish short sessions you have to maximise your fishing, I’m very happy to have a crack at hard waters but I’ve learned over the years that timing is everything and high pressure days on tough waters invariably leads to a blank, specially on limited time.

So the catfish lake it was, after a quick trip to the tackle shop to pick up some Fluorocarbon Line for my winter fishing I dropped onto the lake and was happy to find just one angler present. My favourite swim was empty so it was an easy choice, I had a familiar swim and I felt confident I’d catch this trip, given the high pressure conditions I was happier fishing here rather than being sat on a harder water. Last weekend I spent the day watching the water for signs of fish and I always felt like I was wasting my time, despite the same conditions I didn’t feel that way this time.
I started with a boilie on one rod, it’s not available anymore but I’m still using the old Nash Scopex Squid Red, when my current batch of this bait runs out I’ll have no hesitation in switching to the Squid 4G which is the new version of this old classic. The boilie rod was fished tight to some pads on the far bank, it’s a known patrol route and an absolute banker for a carp even in high pressure conditions.

The second rod was fished with Trout Pellets, I used a pellet rig using the Fox Pellet Pegs to hold the bait on the hair and this was fished in the middle of the lake over a bed of 16mm coppens trout pellets. It pays to hedge your bets on the catfish lake and with warm conditions for the time of year it was possible the cats may still be active. Catfish love pellets and so do the carp so hair rigged trout pellets is a very good tactic if you don’t mind catching both species of fish.

My pellet rig using the Fox Pellet Peg (click to watch)

I was at the lake and fishing by midday, that’s early for me but the dark nights are drawing in so I have to be out earlier if I want to fish for at least 6 hours. With the rods out I settled down to watch the water. It took quite a while before I saw a carp cruise through the swim, it came straight down the middle of the lake and over the bed of Trout Pellets which were on the bottom in 4ft of water. The carp must of known they were there, as soon as the fish passed the bed of pellets it turned and swam over them again. This went on for twenty minutes or so as the fish circled the bait, during that time it was joined by other fish and looking back now, once that first carp found the bait I saw fish activity in my swim for the rest of the session, they knew the baits were there but something was holding them back?. I just figured it was the high pressure, although they were interested in the pellets they weren’t really in a feeding mood?, with hindsight I may have been wrong about that?.

At 2pm I had a short pull on the pellet Rod, my old school Monkey Climber pulled to the top of the needle and stayed there for a few seconds before the slow run continued, I’d seen this type of run before and as I picked up the rod to strike I knew I was hitting into a catfish. This proved to be the case as a huge patch of bubbles hit the surface as I hit a solid lump. It was stalemate for a few seconds before the catfish realised it was hooked and then the fun started as it ripped 40 yards of line off my spool against a fairly tight Clutch. All I could do was hang on until the fish came to a halt then try and pump it back towards me.

After the first initial run I was still attached to the fish which was promising!, I managed to get the fish in front of me when again it set off on another unstoppable run, I stayed with it and eventually it came to a halt just short of the far bank pads this time. I pumped the fish back towards me again, all the time I was wondering how long my Hooklink would hold out, with those rasping ‘sandpaper like’ pads in its mouth it would surely be a matter of time before the line parted?. I was fifteen minutes into the fight when eventually I had the fish in close again but I wasn’t expecting the cats next move, it turned towards me and crashed straight into the pads that were either side of my swim. The fish buried itself good and proper and at this point I thought there’s no way I’m getting this one in. Fortunately the pads were right on top of my swim and I could apply pressure from directly above which is always a massive help when fish get stuck in weed or pads. I could feel my Main Line grating on the pads stems and for a while it was stalemate with me not being able to bring the cat up and the cat just sitting there. My lucky break came when the cat thrashed in the pads, the pads were dying off anyway and the catfish just helped to trash them even more and I found myself back in direct contact. I was able to lead the fish out of the pads and after a couple of shorter runs it was ready for the net. I sunk the net low and pulled the head right up to the spreader block before lifting, this put the bulk of the fish in my landing net and as I lifted the net the tail end of the fish folded and dropped into net. What an epic fight that was!.

I took a few minutes to set up my camera and scales, in all the excitement I’d forgotten to turn my Video Camera on, I forget to do this regularly which is not good when you need the footage for your blog!. I did record the pictures being done though and you can look at that in the clip below. This catfish is now my biggest fish of 2015 so far although only by 4oz, it weighed in at exactly 23lb.

Click to watch my biggest fish of 2015 so far, a 23lb catfish

23lb Cheshire Catfish, my biggest fish of 2015 so far

With the pictures done I released my biggest catfish of the year and checked my rig and mainline, fortunately the fish was hooked in the scissors so no damage at all to the hooklength and no damage to the main line either despite the grating sensation when the cat fight took to the pads?, I run 3 or 4 rod lengths of the main line through my fingers to check it and I was happy with no signs of damage, had the line suffered in any way I’d have stripped it off and started again, I never leave anything like that to chance and it pays to check everything is ok after a protracted fight like that. I have to say the Pro Clear Line I'm using is superb, it's tough enough to cope with situations like this and its a dream to cast with, it's probably the best casting line out there.

With the rig and mainline both ok I put on a fresh pellet and topped up my swim with more pellets. By now I was seeing carp regularly and there was plenty of bubbling going on where the pellets had gone in. 4 times during the afternoon I had a sudden big patch of bubbles appear on the surface followed by a bow wave out of the swim?. I wasn’t sure what was happening?, clearly something was spooking them but I had no indication on the rods, not even a knock or a slight rattle of the rod tip?. I was fishing with a backlead and I suppose a fish could have touched the line despite it being pinned down as they were obviously grubbing about on the bottom?. I also thought the rig might not have been sitting right so I brought it in and checked it, the rig looked ok and the hook was sharp so I just reset it with another cast but it didn’t help and I couldn’t buy another bite on the pellet rod despite the obvious fishy activity out in front of me.

All the time I was engrossed in watching fish activity over my bed of Trout Pellets I’d forgotten about the banker rod on the far pads, at 5pm I was sharply reminded of it when the monkey climber on that rod smacked the top of the needle in typical carp style. I was so close to the rod I could strike without standing up so I hit it as I got up, clamped the spool and walked backwards giving no line. The carp held on the edge of the pads before kiting sideways into open water where I slackened off and played it in gently. This fish was no match for the cat or for my gear and it came in easily, it did put up some resistance when it came to the pads on my bank but by moving my rod top in the opposite direction to the one the carp was pulling in I was able to keep it out of the pads and wear it down ready for the net. Eventually the fish had enough and I slipped a low double common of 12lb 12oz into the net, a typical fish for the water.

Click to watch the low double common that backed up my earlier catfish

A 12lb 12oz Common to back up my Catfish, A typical carp for the water

I managed to film most of the fight for this common specially the close in stuff where it fought best. Sadly that was my last action and although I fished on until 6.30pm I couldn’t tempt another despite the fish clearly liking those pellets. I was happy with the short session, a carp and a catfish in six and a half hours was a fair reward any time let alone the high pressure and poor fishing conditions I had on this trip.

We are well into October now and the weather is cooling down, the clocks will be going back shortly and winter is nearly upon us. I’ll be out trying to catch carp again this winter but I’ll be mixing it with some predator fishing too.

Sunday, 23 August 2015

2015 has been a pretty poor year for me so far, I’ve struggled to catch and had far too many blanks when I’ve been carp fishing, the one highlight of my year so far has been the mirror I caught on the Cromwell Social back in May, apart from that the biggest fish I’ve had so far this year have been mid doubles at best. I have had a few distractions this year though, most notably I took a break from carp and did some Barbel Fishing through the latter half of June and July.
Early in August I found myself thinking about catching another Cheshire catfish so I headed back to the catfish lake I spent last summer on, not only would I be able to target catfish, the lake is a very decent runs water for catching carp so it would provide some much needed carp action along the way and offer a chance to rebuild some confidence after a poor run of form.

My first tangle with a catfish came on my first trip back to the lake and as usual I lost, the fish ran me up the lake past an angler who was fishing to my right and when I tried to apply pressure to stop the blistering run the hook pulled. I did have a bonus carp or two though, the biggest of which weighed 14lb on the nose.

Bonus 14lb Cheshire Carp from my first catfish session

I was back to the Cheshire catfish lake a few days later with a cunning plan. I put down a nice bed of Trout Pellets and fished a pellet rig made with Fox Pellet Pegs over the top of my baited spot. Not only did I bait with pellets for fishing on the bottom, I started feeding mixers over the top of the spot. The reason I did this was to pull the carp and roach in, the constant feeding of mixers would build the swim up and hopefully the catfish would be attracted to all the commotion, when I did this last year I actually ended up with cats competing for the mixers and I hooked and lost 3 of them on a Zig Rig!.

Check out the Fox Pellet Pegs, ideal for hair rigging pellets

Whilst feeding the mixers I had a few gulls visiting, I’ve written about this before, rather than stop feeding the swim I just increase the feed and let the birds have their fill, it wasn’t so easy this time though, what started off as a few gulls eventually turned into a full on flock and I was struggling to get rid of them, I ended up with so many gulls on me I couldn’t cope. I thought about stopping but I carried on, the birds were making a right commotion but that’s exactly what I wanted to pull in the predators and it worked a treat. Whilst I was busy feeding the birds my pellet rod fished underneath gave me a sharp pull then settled back down only to take off on a full blooded run. Straight away I knew I was into a catfish, the Rod buckled under the weight of the fish as it took off towards a bed of pads on the far bank. I tightened up the Clutch to try and slow it down, then I put my thumb on the spool to add some more resistance and luckily I managed to stop the fish from reaching sanctuary. The fight became quite dogged at this point and I had to scrap for every foot of line, these catfish really do fight hard and this one was no exception. Eventually, after a few more runs, I got the fish in front of me and luckily I had a mate on hand to help with the netting, he got the Net ready so I didn’t have to worry about it and I just guided the head of the catfish to the spreader block and he lifted the net and got the bulk of the fish into it, as he lifted some more the tail end of the catfish folded into the mesh and I’d finally won one.

Check out the video of my 22lb 12oz Cheshire Catfish from this story

I set up my Camera and Scales and put the fish on the mat for unhooking, I hadn’t thought much about unhooking a catfish before, I carry forceps but only a small pair and somewhere inside that cavernous mouth was my hook. Luckily moorsey had a longer pair of forceps and I used them to prize open the mouth so I could reach the hook with my own forceps, this worked and I managed to locate my hook and remove it although next time I go to this lake I’m going to make sure I’ve got my longer forceps with me and some gloves too because those pads inside the mouth are actually rows of tiny sharp teeth very capable of drawing blood if you're not careful. I had some pliers I could have used but the longer Forceps definitely helped and I’d recommend carrying them if your water contains any catfish.

With moorsey there to help I weighed the cat in at 22lb 12oz, I was happy with that, it was only my second trip and I’d bagged one already. The pics were a lot easier to do with an extra pair of hands, I didn’t have to worry about the remote or the timer, I just had to hold the cat straight and moorsey did the pics, thanks mate.

22lb 12oz Cheshire Catfish caught over a bed of trout pellets

With my first cat realeased and no damage to the Hooklink due to the hookhold being in the scissors I baited the rig with another pellet, topped the swim up with more trout pellets and started feeding the mixers again. There were certainly plenty of fish in my swim and along the way I had a couple of mirror carp weighing 13lb and 14lb 8oz. A couple of hours later the pellet rod was away again and I found myself hooked up to a second catfish. This one didn’t feel as big as the last one and although it fought very well it didn’t have the power to go on any long runs, it still resisted every step of the way but I always felt in control of this one. Eventually I slipped the net under a smaller fish and on the scales I got 16lb 2oz.

Click to watch my second Catfish being played and photographed

16lb 2oz Cheshire Catfish, the smaller half of my brace

My swim went quiet for a few hours after this fish but with two carp and two cats already banked I didn’t mind, I decided to start packing up at 8.30pm (started fishing at 1pm) and as I packed my gear ready for the walk back up the hill I had one last carp, a nice scaley fish but my smallest of the day at just 10lb 12oz. That last fish brought to an end a productive day, I finished up with a brace of my target catfish and a hatrick of mirrors to give me a little confidence boost. It’s late summer now and Autumn is just around the corner, despite the distractions of targeting barbel and catfish I’ve still invested quite a lot of my time in trying to catch a twenty from a certain water so it’s time to carry on with that quest.

Monday, 11 May 2015

Friday 8th May 2015 saw our long awaited return to Cromwell Lake for the PAAS Annual forum social. Last Year was a tricky affair but I managed to trip up a mid double on the zig rig and a low 30 to more conventional boilie tactics. This year we were hoping to find the fish in a more obliging mood as half the lads blanked last time.

Click to watch the video of the cromwell carp social

I rolled into the Cromwell car park a little after 10.00am and as it turned out most of the lads were already there and by the time I’d done a lap of the lake everyone was present. Another quick walk around and we did the draw at 11.00am. I stood and watched as everyone took their turn to take a golf ball from the draw bag, it didn’t matter when you picked your ball, it was the number on the front that made all the difference, number 1 got first choice of swim and number 12 would be last. If you have read this blog before you may be aware of my stunning consistency in coming out with number 11 or 12!. I thought I’d broken the routine last year when I got ball number 6 but I was stunned and quite honestly gutted when I reached into the bag and pulled out number 12!, I was getting last choice of peg again.

I watched as all the pegs I’d made a mental note of disappeared, fortunately we keep our socials to 12 people when we hire a lake so there was a few areas left that might be worthwhile. One half of the double swim 12/13 was free and as it was a social I decided to join ‘Barry the pike’ at the other end of the lake. Apart from it being a social the wind was forecast to swing round to a strong south westerly of 30mph so it would be hacking up to my end of the lake at some point over the weekend.

My bivvy on the left and 'Barry the Pike' setting his indicator on the right of 12/13

A slow walk round the lake with a fully laden Carp Porter saw me arrive at peg 12. I set about sorting my gear out straight away and once the bivvy was sorted I got to work on the rods, the new Distance Sticks came out as well as the Marker Rod and I examined a depth map of the water and pinned down a few spots. One thing that became apparent straight away was that I had the deepest water in the lake in front of me and picking out areas to put baits wasn’t that easy.

Cygnet Distance Sticks, ideal for fishing features accurately

With the rods sorted out I settled down to watch the water, the wind did turn strong south westerly but unfortunately it lashed down with rain too so fish spotting was almost impossible. I did see one fish roll as it was getting dark so I quickly covered it with a single but the first night passed uneventfully, not just for me but for everyone else too!.
Saturday brought a change of fortune for one of the lads as he banked a mirror known as ‘Arthur’ at 37lb 2oz, a right result from peg 11 which was a little bay on my left. As the morning wore on it became clear the carp were up at my end of the lake in numbers, it was also clear they weren’t feeding on the bottom at all. There was a massive fly hatch going on and the carp were pre-occupied with the hatch. The amount of swallows and swifts dipping and diving across the water was amazing, there were literally hundreds of them all enjoying nature’s bounty along with the carp.

A big south westerly brought the carp to my end of the lake

I made the decision to switch to the Zig Rig, with bottom fishing a complete waste of time it would be the best chance of getting a fish. I thought a small piece of black foam would best match the fly hatch that was going on so I set up a black Fox Zig Aligna with black foam for bait, this was fished on a 12ft zig rig in 14ft of water at a range of about 80-90 yards out were the carp were turning over on the surface. The black foam produced nothing during the main part of the day so I started to think of making my bait stand out rather than try to imitate the fly hatch and I decided to switch to Yellow foam during the late afternoon.

The change to yellow foam eventually paid off as later in the evening my middle Delkim let out a few bleeps and my monkey climber signalled a drop back. I wound down quickly and sure enough my Torrix Rod whooped over and it was carp on!. The fish was slow and ponderous, you never know what the hook hold is like when you’re fishing the zig rig so I played this carp in carefully. I managed to negotiate a few sharp looking bars close in on the left by keeping the rod tip high and pressuring the fish up in the water. There were a few short runs to deal with when the fish came close in but apart from that the carp didn’t have much to offer and 10 minutes after I’d hooked it, Barry slipped the net under what looked like a twenty plus mirror.

Cromwell lake provide nice big unhooking mats, weigh slings and landing nets which is handy, I set up the mat and sling then lifted my carp from the water. It definitely felt like a twenty plus and after quickly unhooking the fish we weighed it in at 22lb 12oz, I was well happy with that one, not only had I escaped a blank for the weekend, it was also my biggest zig rig caught carp topping a 22lb+ fish from Sandhurst a few years ago.
The carp was nice and clean and with two good mates Barry and Kirt on hand to assist we had the pictures done in no time and I carefully zipped up the sling, carried my fish back to the water and released it with the Go Pro Video Camera in my other hand filming the occasion.

My 22lb 12oz Zig rig caught Cromwell Lake Carp

The pressure was off for me now, with just the night and Sunday morning left before our trip ended I opted to go all out on the zigs for the rest of the trip but not before we sent out for pizza for the Saturday evening meal. A good laugh was had by all and as time wore on eventually we all headed back to our swims to cast out for the night. Late in the evening the fish started showing in front of the house at the other end of the lake so I wasn’t very hopeful but I covered the areas I’d seen fish in front of me with zigs anyway.

The second night stayed quiet for me but a few fish did come off pegs 14 and 15, nothing big though, just doubles up to 17lb. I stayed right until midday in the hope of picking another off on the zig rig but it didn’t happen and after a slow pack up during the morning I pushed my overloaded Carp Porter back to the car park and headed for home.

For the record, 12 of us fished, only 4 anglers caught, one of us had 4 doubles to 17lb, another had Arthur at 37lb 2oz plus a 21 and a low double of 11lb. I caught just the one but it turned out to be the second biggest of the trip at 22lb 12oz and one had a 17lb mirror. It was a tough trip, worse for virtually all of us compared to last year. This is no reflection on Cromwell Lake, it’s a nice lake, very well run with quite a few big fish in, we just happened to be there when the carp were heavily on a fly hatch and there’s not a lot you can do about that. What makes Cromwell lake tricky for most is the depth of water and the time the carp spend off the bottom, it makes conventional boilie fishing quite difficult at times and you really need to be plugged into that fact if you decide to pay a visit. For our socials, we like to see as many people catch as possible so we probably won’t book Cromwell lake again, next year I’ve a feeling we’ll be going back to that old favourite of ours Sandhurst so roll on next year!.

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Welcome to my first update of 2015 and a bit of a plug for my expanding Youtube Channel. It’s been the toughest winter I can remember in a long time. I started my winter carp fishing during the Christmas holidays and I’ve been fishing most weekends since the New Year with precious little to show for my efforts. I did escape the 2015 blankers club in February with a small common around 6-7lb and I followed it up a week later with a hatrick of carp, all around the same size and all caught from a popular Cheshire club/runs water on my usual winter carp tactics.

Escape from the 2015 blankers club, a small winter carp comes to the net on a popular Cheshire carp water

In early March I decided to make a start on one of my target waters for 2015 and I appear to have made a mistake in doing so because it’s remained stubbornly cold and the carp still haven’t started coming out yet despite it now being April.

During my long blanking period I’ve been busy working on and upgrading my Youtube Channel so I can feature some videos to support this blog. This is something I’ve been meaning to do far ages and with the blanks piling up I’ve had plenty of time to get things done. I’ve completed the artwork for the channel and it fits in nicely now with this blog. I’m not going to switch over and become a video blogger, I much prefer to write things down rather than try and present on camera, I just find it easier to get my points across in writing and in all honesty I’m not one of these people who loves the sound of their own voice (lol).

I’ve been improving my video editing skills over the winter and early spring and there are already several clips and a few short films already available to watch. The best so far was the last one I uploaded a week or so back which was my first try at actually narrating a short film using a script, please have a watch, take a look at the other clips on the channel too, like the videos and subscribe, it all helps me gage if it’s actually worthwhile doing.

The typical fishing day of a Wirral Carp Angler

As well as having a go at narrating a video I’ve also done one on how to coat lead weights and this one has also been embedded into the making leads page of this blog, it’s quite a long one at around 18 minutes but it’s well worth watching right through if you’ve never tried to coat your own carp leads before.

How to apply lead coating powder to your carp leads

I’ll be adding more clips as and when I have enough material, currently I’m carrying a little Go Pro Video Camera with me every trip so I’m hoping to have plenty of footage to support this blog going forward. I have a return trip to Cromwell Lake coming up in the next month, these socials are always a favourite occasion of mine, not only do we get the chance to fish for some very big carp but it’s always that little bit special when you’re sharing it with your mates. Last year I got lucky and banked a 30 on my first trip, I’ve no idea what’s in store this time but I’ll be doing my best to try and catch another big carp this year so don’t forget to pop back and see how I get on.

Nothing beats Shimano for Reels

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